


Sakura H and the Friendship Pact

by GuardianMars



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Female Bonding, Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric, don't worry it'll get better, is your fave character really your fave if you don't make them suffer?, spoiler alert: frienship for the win
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 10:55:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23850037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuardianMars/pseuds/GuardianMars
Summary: "Sakura was in her room rearranging her book shelves for the third time (first by author, then by genre, then by color cause why the hell not?) when she glanced at the clock on her bedside table and realized she hadn’t slept in roughly 18 hours. Oops."Team 7's first mission outside of Konoha and Sakura is stuck by herself trying to process it. Fortunately, she's not as alone as she previously thought.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 73





	Sakura H and the Friendship Pact

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when I said I had more Sakura fics? Well, here we are.
> 
> This is unrelated to GNTP, but also starts post-Wave cause I'm a bit lazy. Lol.

\---

Sakura hasn’t slept for two days.

Team 7 had arrived back to Konoha from Wave. Their mission was upgraded to an A-rank and they had been given a mandatory down time of a week. In addition to receiving a heftier paycheck, Kakashi-sensei had given them three days off from training and everyone had parted ways, the boys heading in different directions and Sensei poofing off to who knew where. 

Sakura had walked back home on autopilot, walked through the door, up to her room, and promptly passed out for the next several hours. When the nightmares came, Sakura went downstairs to make a pot of coffee and while the coffee drip, drip, dripped down into the pot, checked and rechecked all the doors and windows to the house. 

Her parents had left on another business trip before her first mission outside the village and weren’t due back for another two months. And while Sakura normally liked the independence of being trusted to look after herself, she really wished her parents were home. If only to keep her analytical brain from rehashing and over analyzing everything. 

Knowing that any more sleep was officially off the table, Sakura sighed and brought her pack to the kitchen table to begin unpacking. Each pocket and pouch meticulously emptied, each item inventoried and put away; she was left with one of her red dresses that had been ruined from the mission and debated on whether to just chuck it or if she could possibly save it. She stared down at her dress; so red from the rich dyes used to create the custom dress to the darker blood stains (when had that happened?) and as she stared at the dress in her hands, she soon realized her hands were covered in it. 

Her heart skipped a beat. 

And suddenly all she could see was blood. Blood everywhere. Blood and dirt and hazy mist (but that was wrong. Wasn't it? When did get blood on herself?) And the cold bite of a kunai in her hands as she stood guard before Tazuna and _oh gods, oh gods, she didn’t want to-_

Wet warmth on her hands and Sakura started. 

Tears. 

Only tears.

And that made her angry. And stupidly enough, made her cry more.

_Why are you crying?_ An inner voice sneered. _Is that all you’re good for?_

“No,” she whispered, shaking her head. “No, no, no.” But she wasn’t so sure. 

Surely, she was more than this?

Right?

And so Sakura cried. No matter how hard she tried, it was as if she couldn’t stop, the wracking sobs shaking her frame and she fought for breath and just when she thought she was finished, more tears came. It hurt; it hurt so much just to breathe and she felt like she was drowning. She couldn’t fight back the tears, it hurt too much, and so she just let it wash over her. 

And she cried. 

Moments and minutes and ages passed until, _finally_. 

Finally, she was spent. The last of the tears slid down her cheeks and Sakura sat on the kitchen floor, exhausted. 

The coffee maker spluttered out the last of the water she had poured in. Slowly, the rest of Sakura’s senses caught up to her. The aroma of coffee wafting throughout the kitchen, the soft glow of the lights. Sakura sat there for a moment longer, taking stock of herself. She was tired, yes.

But… She also felt a little better.

Sakura took a deep breath and held it. She brought her knees to her chest and closed her eyes. Breathing out, she dropped her head to her knees and slowly breathed in, this time focusing on her chakra - feeling it slink and circulate gently through her chakra coils. 

She sat there for a moment longer, sniffling, and then, she got up. 

\--

The house had been stress cleaned to the point of passing a white glove test; Sakura was in her room rearranging her book shelves for the third time (first by author, then by genre, then by color cause why the hell not?) when she glanced at the clock on her bedside table and realized she hadn’t slept in roughly 18 hours. Oops.

Sakura pursed her lips. It would probably be a good idea to get out of the house, go outside even if just for a little bit. She hesitated, standing before her bookcase, and then mentally ran through anything else that could do with cleaning and grimaced when the only thing she could come up with was polishing the silverware - something usually reserved for punishments. Sakura sighed, _don’t be a weenie!_ An inner voice chided as she trudged over to her closet. _You need eggs anyway._

And so Sakura walked, rather reluctantly to the market. Dressed for comfort more than fashion. Her normally long, glossy hair was rather unkempt and she was sporting a large sweatshirt and leggings despite Konoha still being in the final dregs of summer. 

Despite living well within the confines of the Civilian District, Sakura had opted to go to one of the smaller markets located in the center of town. Walking up and down the aisles, Sakura was lost in thought; she didn’t really need much if she was only cooking for one but she found that now that she was out of the house, she was rather reluctant to go back. Going back meant dealing with her own thoughts and right now it didn’t take much for her to spiral down into a brooding mess. 

_Sasuke-kun wasn’t the only brooder of the team,_ she thought humorlessly. 

Winding aimlessly down the market fairground, Sakura was thinking of treating herself to some dango when she heard someone call out, “Hey, Forehead!”

Sakura blinked. She was standing outside the Yamanaka Flower Shop. _How the hell?_ Sakura wondered. Clearly, she was more out of it than she realized. 

Ino waved her inside, and Sakura, bag of random grocery items in hand, followed and stopped just inside the doorway. 

“ _Sooo_ ,” Ino started. “How’ve you been? You just got back from a mission right? How was it? Where did you go?”

Sakura regarded Ino rather suspiciously. Ino was fishing for something. Most likely Sasuke-kun related and ordinarily Sakura probably would have been irritated by the poor attempts at subtlety. Did Ino _really_ care about Sakura or was she just trying to use the conversation as a jumping point to talk about their shared crush?

How _was_ she doing??

Well, she had woken up from an hours long nap not knowing what year it was, had remnants of nightmares she couldn’t recall, had what she was pretty sure was an anxiety attack the night previous; was lowkey scared of going back to sleep because _nightmares_ , and she was starting to get a stomachache from the copious amounts of coffee she had been downing. 

_Sooo_ , peachy. With a side of keen. <3

Only, as soon as Sakura opened her mouth to give her caustic remark she was rather horrified to find her throat suddenly tight. The only thing she managed to get out was a scratchy, uneven, “I-” before tears welling up in her eyes and quickly spilling over. 

Ino had a rather alarmed look on her face and Sakura knew there was no pretending everything was fine now. Well, shit.

If only she knew a jutsu to allow the earth to swallow her up, Sakura thought blearily. She would use it in a heartbeat. It was as she wondered if Sensei would know of any. _After all he had to right? Thousand jutsus and all that,_ that Sakura was beginning to feel a slight tinge of hysterics, which bubbled up in her throat was a wet laugh-cry.

Ino, who was socially adept enough to read the damn room even if she didn’t always _choose_ to do so, promptly grabbed Sakura by the elbow and dragged her further into the shop. 

Sakura’s vision was tunneling out by this point and she was just trying to _b r e a t h e_ , dammit. Why was that so hard? But she couldn’t. Couldn’t take in enough air to expand her lungs, couldn’t maintain control, not when she was starting to feel a little lightheaded and Ino was there and it was _so embarrassing_. What if Ino tried to call her parents? Or worse, Kakashi-sensei? 

Her breathing came out faster; she was pretty sure the man would be more embarrassed than her (if that was possible at this point). And she really couldn’t handle the thought of having to put up a front. Again. Everything is fine, nothing to see here. Sakura was the best adjusted member of Team 7 after all. Just ask Iruka-sensei, or any functioning adult, really. And oh my gods. Why did her chest hurt? _She couldn’t breathe._

“Sakura-chan.”

She shook her head. She pressed her hands to her head, fingernails digging into her scalp. She couldn’t.

She couldn’t.

She couldn’tshe couldn’tshecouldn’tshe--

“Sakura. Listen to me, sweetheart.”

There was too much mist. Too much. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t see. Couldn’t hear anything past the panting of her own breath.

“It’s too much.” Sakura rasped out.

“Sakura. Focus on my voice.”

Mist. Mist everywhere. Tazuna was whimpering behind her. And she couldn’t see the boys. Couldn’t see-

“Focus on my voice and take a deep breath in, okay?”

The steel of the kunai bit into her palm from gripping it so hard. But she heard a soft intake. She shut her eyes tight. _It hurt_ , it hurt and felt jerky but Sakura took a ragged breath in.

“That’s a good girl.” The voice soothed. “And now breathe out.”

And with the voice, Sakura breathed out.

_In. Out._

_In. Out._

_In. Out._

“Sakura-chan. Can you open your eyes for me?”

It takes a moment for Sakura’s eyes to adjust, to figure out where she is. Sakura is in the backroom to the Yamanaka Flower Shop and Yuuko-ba-san is sitting before her; one hand in Sakura’s hair, gently combing her fingers through. The other is being held in Sakura’s own, is being _crushed_ in Sakura’s own. _Path of the Six Sages, whyyyyy._

Sakura is mortified and moves to let go, only for the older woman to keep a firm grip on her. There is a soft shuffling and then Ino is there and Sakura wants to die. Please, please, please can the earth just swallow her whole? Earth jutsus always start with the ram hand sign, maybe if she runs through all the combinations she knows, she’ll hit upon the right combo and-

A cool cloth washes over Sakura’s face and finally is pressed to the back of her neck and it feels lovely, heavenly. But also, _mortification_. 

Ino is speaking and it sounds a little warped, like there’s cotton in her ears but that’s impossible because her ears are burning too much. It would catch fire. Perhaps it’s ram, snake, ox, then...

Sakura feels her hair being tugged into a ponytail and looks up at Ino’s mom who’s _hand she just crushed_ and, “Come along, up you get.” Yuuko-ba-san says gently and tugs on Sakura’s hands. Both stand and then Sakura is tucked under Ino’s mom’s arm.

A conversation is being had and Sakura can’t hear past the blood rushing through her ears, not that she was really paying much attention anyway as a very large part of her still wants to _die_ from _embarrassment_.

Then, Ino’s mom is fussing over her again, saying something about food and Sakura is enjoying the feeling of her hair being patted and her arm being rubbed comfortingly and it’s because of this, ~~but probably mostly the sleep deprivation~~ , that Sakura ends up being walked to the Yamanaka compound, groceries and all.

She should have just polished the silverware.

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If "felt cute, might delete later" was a mood for fic, this would be it. 
> 
> This started out much fluffier and lighter but then ended up as this (sorry), so it's going a bit sideways but I think it'll be interesting. Fingers crossed. Lol.


End file.
